Ruptured Reasoning: The Innkeepers (2011)

by Chris Marshall:

Director: Ti West

Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healty, Alison Bartlett

Netflix Synopsis: In this eerie ghost story, a venerable inn closes after a century in business and the two remaining employees are determined to uncover the truth about longtime rumors that the majestic mansion is haunted -- but will they survive their explorations?

CHRIS: I was mentioning to Justin a night or two ago that, even with no conscious planning on our part, our first few movies in this series had all been completely different styles of horror. Pontypool was zombies, The Snowtown Murders had serial killers, Crawlspace kind of fell into 80’s slasher territory, Vile was a torture movie, and Eyes Without a Face was a classic old-school movie. We were pretty much just missing ghosts, monsters, and vampires.

Ruptured Reasoning: The Snowtown Murders (2011)

by Chris Marshall:

In case you missed the first post in this series over at Movie Coda, my roommate Justin and I are going to watch a horror movie each day until Halloween and write our thoughts about it. Any kind of horror is fair game, but the films must be available either on Netflix Instant or Hulu Plus. Each day we will alternate blogs, but I’ll link to the previous day’s post on here as well.

Sometimes we’ll have conflicting opinions, and sometimes we’ll agree. We’re not playing the game where we each take a different side of the argument. In other words, I’ll always have the correct opinion about each film, and every once in a while, when he agrees with me, Justin will be right too.

My first pick was The Snowtown Murders, a rare horror biopic. I had wanted to see it when it was in the theater in Ohio, but it had such a short run that I never made it. We’ll see if it was worth our while.

The Oscar Project #84: The Artist (2011)

by Chris Marshall:

I think the symmetry between the first and most recent Best Picture winners is absolutely perfect. Way back in 1927, Wings became the first film to win the top award at the Oscars, and as it turned out, it was the only silent picture to ever win… until this year.

Yes, in some sense, The Artist is not a true silent film. There are moments of sound and even color in the movie, but I have to imagine it’s the closest we’ll ever get to it again. And in another fitting connection, The Artist was set in 1927, the year Wings came out. I know this symmetry only exists because I happened to choose to do The Oscar Project this year, but it almost seems pre-ordained.

I do have to admit that I prefer this year’s winner to the first one, as much as I’ve defended the quality of some (thought definitely not all) of those early winners. But that’s mostly because The Artist is a very good film, finely crafted and well-acted. It didn’t win because it was a gimmick. I wouldn’t say it was the best movie of 2011—that title goes to Drive, based on what I’ve seen from last year—but it was certainly one of the best.